Enlarge image
Defendant Stefan R. in court
Photo: Paul Zinken / dpa
The man around whom everything revolves in room 501 of the Berlin criminal court is easy to overlook.
Stefan R. sits in the farthest corner of an escape-proof box construction made of wood, glass and metal struts.
He seldom seeks contact with his defense lawyers.
Most of the time he just sits there with his head tilted.
The 42-year-old wears glasses and thinning hair. His mouth is framed by a thin beard. During the course of his pre-trial detention, he lost weight and his face narrowed. Until his arrest, Stefan R. taught mathematics and chemistry at a private school in Berlin, but in court he lets others do the talking. Possibly because it is difficult for him to talk about what he is supposed to have done: The public prosecutor's office accuses him of murder for low motives and for the satisfaction of the sexual instinct. Stefan R. killed a man to get sexually aroused and to eat parts of the corpse.
For the night of September 6, 2020, Stefan R. had arranged to have sex with the mechanic Stefan T., 44, via a dating portal.
The men didn't know each other.
Stefan T. drove to the teacher's apartment in Berlin-Pankow.
He did not leave her alive.
Walkers gradually found his body parts in November.
Testicles and penis were absent.
"He was my best friend"
Julia B., 41, had known the victim since her youth. "He was my best friend," she says. It is difficult for her to testify in court. Again and again she fights back tears on Tuesday. Stefan T. and Julia B. saw each other regularly, spoke on the phone several times a week, and had few secrets from each other. She knew that Stefan T. drank beer regularly, that he smoked pot, also consumed cocaine and poppers, a sexually stimulating substance. She also knew about changing sex partners, women and couples. She didn't know that he had dated a man that night for sex.
Other sex partners of the alleged murderer had portrayed cannibalism fantasies of the accused during the trial. You spoke of castration simulations and longing for death. But nothing indicated that the victim wanted to die that night. "It was just on the upswing," says his best friend. “He was in a good mood.” Financially, he said, it was almost seldom the case. "He was just sorting out his life."
This Thursday, the mother speaks in court about her dead son.
She looks impressively composed.
He was a “cheerful, friendly person”, says the former nurse, “hardworking, with fun at work”.
He was physically perfectly healthy, says the 63-year-old, otherwise he would not have been able to do his hard work as a fitter.
As a child he suffered from allergic asthma, as a young person he smoked weed.
She doesn't know much about his sex life.
It is not a subject that sons necessarily discuss with their mothers.
He would have celebrated his birthday two weeks after his disappearance.
“He was really looking forward to it.
But it didn't come to that. "
more on the subject
Cannibalism trial in Berlin: what the freezer for?
- »One fits in there« Wiebke Ramm reports from Berlin
Murder trial in Berlin: He called himself "Master Metzger" Von Wiebke Ramm
Cannibal trial in Berlin: "Cut eggs?" - "That came later" By Wiebke Ramm, Berlin
Murder trial in Berlin: he agreed to lose consciousness by Wiebke Ramm
Stefan T.'s younger brother and his father follow every single day of the negotiation.
His mother was there too, sometimes she wept silently in her seat.
The family overheard coroners talk about the remains of their child and brother, and the defendant's sex partners about his cannibalistic fantasies.
At some point, the mother stopped coming regularly to the process.
Stefan R. initially defended himself in silence.
He recently had a defense attorney describe his version of that September night.
In it he denies any involvement in the death of Stefan T.
The defendant claims to have slept in another room in the apartment when Stefan T. died in the living room.
The explanation suggests some kind of accident.
According to this, Stefan T. is said to have died from a careless mix of alcohol and drugs.
Instead of dialing the emergency number, the defendant dismembered the body and buried the body parts in several places in Berlin.
He said he acted out of fear.
He feared that with the naked dead person on his sofa, his homosexuality would become known.
Neither his parents nor his friends or colleagues knew about it.
He would rather have used a saw and a knife.
For the next day of the trial, the court has invited Professor Michael Tsokos, the head of the Institute for Forensic Medicine at the Berlin Charité.
The court wants to hear from him what he thinks from a medical point of view about the accused's admission.
The presiding judge may have already made it clear on that day what the court thought of the testimony.
Once he made a promise and said "killed" instead of "deceased".
He improves instantly.
